Tintin reaches astronomical heights

03/12/2020

The auction house Daniel Maghen has announced that a drawing of Tintin and Captain Haddock in space has been sold for 145,000 euros.

This is a black and white drawing, in Indian ink and gouache, made by Hergé in 1952 for a jigsaw puzzle. The two companions are portrayed in space, with Tintin standing on the side of the famous rocket from the Explorers on the Moon album, holding the Captain, who risks disappearing in the immensity of the universe, by a rope.

Two of Tintin's adventures are dedicated to the conquest of space. The first, under the title Destination Moon, in 1952, describes the preparation of the mission. The second part, released in 1954 as the Explorers on the Moon album, takes place in space and on the surface of the moon. Its climax is the heroes walking on our satellite, 15 years before Armstrong's achievement. One amusing detail is that Snowy is there and has a custom-made spacesuit.

If the amount of this sale is the stuff of dreams, in 2015, a pencil and gouache plate drawing (large format and without words), taken from Tintin in the Congo, was sold for 770,660 euros. Hergé also holds the world record for comic sales, with a Tintin plate dating from 1937 that sold at auction in 2014 in Paris for 2.65 million euros. This was a flyleaf for the albums. It shows Tintin and Snowy in 34 different situations, each of which is linked to a highlight in an album, from The Blue Lotus to The Broken Ear.

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